White Noise

Written by Don DeLillo

Narrated by Michael Prichard

Buy a poster of the White Noise jacket art designed by Michael Cho

Read a review about White Noise in the Los Angeles Times

Winner of the National Book Award, White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and four ultramodern offspring as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event," a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys-radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings-pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Release date: Sep 28, 1999
• ISBN: 9781415919729

Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo is the author of many bestselling novels, including Point Omega, Falling Man, White Noise, Libra and Zero K, and has won many honours in America and abroad, including the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize for his complete body of work and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his novel Underworld. In 2010, he received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award. He has also written several plays.

Reviews for White Noise

[sean191 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was disappointed in this book. It's the first I've read from DeLillo, but since it was raved about for so long, I had high hopes. I think maybe when it came out nearly 35 years ago, it was amazing and fresh. In ways, it reminded me of the movie Clerks or a number of other Indie movies from that time - ridiculous dialogue that people would never actually have, but funny nonetheless. Here though, I think as with many works of literature and art, the works it inspired built upon the foundation of the original to create something better.

[lovinglit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to my poor memory, and that I first read this book over a decade ago, I was able to re-read this book and yet feel like it was my first time (bonus!!). This may actually be the book which turned me into a reader. I can't say why I absent-mindedly picked it off a friend's shelf and started it back then, had had no inclination to ever do that with a book before- but it blew me away. The insights the author had about how life was just resonated with me. I found it comforting that someone else thought so much how about the little things (which are actually the big things). Anyway, I loved it then, and I loved it again this time. Rather than talking about the plot, which to me is usually secondary to the experience of reading, I will talk about a few things that the book made me feel. It made me feel like we (as human beings in the Western world) are kidding ourselves that our consumerist lifestyles are making us happy. This book slyly and drily makes this point, I think. Jack is the man whose comments and observations bring to light a scepticism about the benefits of modern life that many are able to quell in the hubbub of our daily grind. Through his and his families experience of a "toxic airborne event" there are hints dropped about how the way our society is structured hinders our ability to be at ease within it. When reading this book I was thinking about how we are persuaded to think differently about things via advertising and bureaucratic dictates - how we are distracted and removed from basic common sense ways of handling ourselves. And it's funny! Maybe because we all worry about life/death/stuff, and we know that we can distract ourselves from this by keeping busy and sticking to the programme. Jack ends up varying wildly from accepted forms of distraction, but in a way that seems quite rational given his thought processes. All this is very cleverly laid out and was a dream to read.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have a really hard time with these types of books. It had no real plot. It just sort of meandered along with all of the characters being hopelessly cynical about life and death. I felt like the author could have made his point in 100 pages rather than three times that many. Maybe it is me - I just don't enjoy a book where the characters take no real joy out of life. Especially when that seems to be the point of the book.

[ireadthereforeiam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to my poor memory, and that I first read this book over a decade ago, I was able to re-read this book and yet feel like it was my first time (bonus!!). This may actually be the book which turned me into a reader. I can't say why I absent-mindedly picked it off a friend's shelf and started it back then, had had no inclination to ever do that with a book before- but it blew me away. The insights the author had about how life was just resonated with me. I found it comforting that someone else thought so much how about the little things (which are actually the big things). Anyway, I loved it then, and I loved it again this time. Rather than talking about the plot, which to me is usually secondary to the experience of reading, I will talk about a few things that the book made me feel. It made me feel like we (as human beings in the Western world) are kidding ourselves that our consumerist lifestyles are making us happy. This book slyly and drily makes this point, I think. Jack is the man whose comments and observations bring to light a scepticism about the benefits of modern life that many are able to quell in the hubbub of our daily grind. Through his and his families experience of a "toxic airborne event" there are hints dropped about how the way our society is structured hinders our ability to be at ease within it. When reading this book I was thinking about how we are persuaded to think differently about things via advertising and bureaucratic dictates - how we are distracted and removed from basic common sense ways of handling ourselves. And it's funny! Maybe because we all worry about life/death/stuff, and we know that we can distract ourselves from this by keeping busy and sticking to the programme. Jack ends up varying wildly from accepted forms of distraction, but in a way that seems quite rational given his thought processes. All this is very cleverly laid out and was a dream to read.

[dr_flanders · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel is a great read. I realize that some of the reviews claim that the plot is choppy, and there is some true to that. With all due respect, I think that some people who disliked this book felt like the book was about "the airborne toxic event" when this book is really about the fear of death. Another big theme is that of the modern family in the wake of an American consumer culture. The book is also really subversively funny. The main protagonist is a professor of "Hitler Studies" who is terrified of death. Nuns who do not believe in God make an appearance. There are many absurd moments that somehow ring true. The plot is a bit choppy, if you are waiting for big events...but this book does not need a well oiled plot to serve it's purpose.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite DeLillo novel because I can't really relate to any of the main protagonists. The poor family that suffers and is flogged in a whole plethora of different ways, is completely dysfunctional and fails to capture my interest/sympathy. Perhaps this is a result of DeLillo's particular brand of very cynical satire...however, I must admit that DeLillo does succeed in creating a world that rings nightmarishly true. Unfortunately the pathos slides into the pathetic.

[ted_newell-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great short read, pathos city as I recall it. Nothing matters. Like John Lennon the proto post modernist (I Am The Walrus), there is just background noise all the time, meaningless information, static, white noise. Regular life has to persist against this background noise, like, an ominous hum.

[megantron-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

just some jumbled thoughts, proper review later (though probably not lol)

I certainly liked the book more than my sister did. Yes, it's annoyingly postmodern and the dialogue is insufferable and often too clever for its own good. But it is weirdly prophetic; I can't believe that DeLillo wrote this in 1985. With its emphasis on fear, anxiety, and the media, it seems like a book for the post 9/11 world.


The events of the book are clearly inspired by Love Canal and the proliferation of superfund sites. Weirdly enough, the book was published a year before the events of Cherbonyl. What else? A reference to Colonel Qaddafi, mentions about how Japan seems to be especially prone to natural disasters (this was pre-1995 Kobe Earthquake and the 2011 tusnami/nuclear meltdown). Heinrich's friend is willing to risk death to make it into the Guinness World Records, and people, upon being caught in an environmental catastrophe, complain that they aren't being covered by the media --all before the age of youtube! The "white noise" in the background --TV, radio --has surely been eclipsed by the rise of the PC and internet. Can you imagine if DeLillo had written this book in 2011?

Scientists still aren't sure how continuous, background low-dose levels of radiation from things like microwaves and cell phones might affect the human body. Heinrich would make an excellent environmental risk analyst for the EPA.

Ending sucks; feels like a cheap attempt at drama.

Oh yeah, and I'm totally convinced that literary critics have the worst senses of humor ever. It's not funny --not even darkly funny. I might have smiled grimly once or twice, but honestly, critics need to get out more or something or watch Chappelle's Show or something goddamn)


overall: relevant, highly intelligent, well-written if often grating, not funny. Definitely a modern classic.

Unrelated: I would love to own a copy of the edition with the Michael Cho cover. The cartoonish art is beautifully rendered and really captures the spirit of the book (comic art! so commercial).

[peterjameswest · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found Don DeLillo's style quite different from other books that I've read. I may have ventured out of my comfort zone.
One thing I did like was the way he intertwined fragments of life into the plot, such as news clips on the radio that weren't really part of the plot but that were well crafted so that they added to the overall atmosphere of the story.

[jadedog13 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I didn't like this book at all. Maybe I just didn't get it. Boring, pointless and it just ends - I didn't even realize it was the last page at first (I read it on a kindle). I kept thinking I must have hit the wrong button; that couldn't be the end. Weird.

[trilliams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I blazed through this in about four hours. Still haven't quite figured it out. Comfortingly different from all the other "classics" I've read, and makes me wonder about the weirdly high amount of pop culture I've consumed. Rather than go on about that, though, I leave you with this: "Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom."

[thatotter-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Some good writing, but I felt like this book was more concerned with its ideas than with plot or characters. Why not just write an essay? Also didn't care for the smugness and parody.

[unsquare_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book, but it took me three tries over five years to finally read it all the way through. It's immensely quotable, fascinatingly post-modern and bordering on surreal because it is so heightened and odd. I would highly recommend it, and I'd love to see it as a movie some day. I imagine that most other people who pick it up for fun are more likely to actually read it all the way through on the first go...

[nigeyb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read "White Noise" by Don DeLillo for my book group. I tried to read "Underworld", around the time it came out, and chose to abandon it. I know five other readers who had the same experience with "Underworld". I was therefore relieved to discover that "White Noise" is a more accessible, amusing and readable book. That said, there isn't much of a plot and most of the book details numerous inconsequential, every day occurrences and conversations. There's much to enjoy, however my initial relief gave way to slight boredom with the meandering nature of the book. The book's characters are an interesting bunch that all centre around an extended small town family. As the "story" unfolds several themes emerge - death and mortality, consumerism, technology, and authenticity - which are playfully explored. It is only in final third of the book there is any semblance of a conventional plot and the death theme, that runs throughout the book, becomes more explicit.Recommended if you enjoy clever and digressive satirical novels with various levels of meaning to ponder. 3/5

[wrk1-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's a comic novel, a satire. Lighten up, people! Delillo nails many of the strange ways we create our self image, the knots we tie ourselves into because of our fear of death, the absurdities of academia, and the oddities in the relationships between men and women, parents and children. And a lot more.

A comic gem: the end of chapter 33, when Babette's creaky old father, before he drives away, tells her for the last time not to worry about him:
"Don't worry about me", he said. "The little limp means nothing. People my age limp. A limp is a natural thing at a certain age. Forget the cough. It's healthy to cough. You move the stuff around. The stuff can't harm you as long as it doesn't settle in one spot and stay there for years. So the cough's all right. So is the insomnia. What do I gain by sleeping?..." and on through sex, cigarettes, money, teeth, the shakes, sudden weight loss, his eyes, and his mind.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would rate this book between 3 and 4 stars. It was mildly entertaining. It is a good example of postmodernism literature. In this work, the author, DonDeLillo, explores the threat of environmental disaster, rampant consumerism and the uncertainty of death. Postmodern also is a word to describe truth as shifting and relevant. White Noise is set in a college town, the protagonist, Jack, is a professor of Hitler. He and his wife debate and compete with each other on who gets to die first. I don't think this is a very unusual discussion among partners. The novel is filled with popular culture, real products and real people. The environmental disaster is a black cloud of toxic chemicals that spreads over the area. Jack is exposed because he has to pump gas so that the family can make it to the relocation area. He believes he is dying because of his exposure and he becomes obsessed with death even more than he had been obsessed. He also becomes obsessed with Dylar, a drug that is rumored to be able to make him forget his fear of dying. The family spends much of their time in the grocery store and and looking at sunsets. There is humor throughout the book that deals with such serious matters as environmental disasters and death anxiety. I especially liked how The book starts with descriptions of the family purchasing goods and ends with Jack furiously decluttering the home of various products and discarded objects of consumerism.

[poetontheone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

DeLillo's seminal work is an indictment of the near-dystopic state of contemporary American culture; a culture steeped in fear, satiated by consumption, and obsessed with symbols of cultural hero worship. This novel is frequently lauded as being funny. It is funny, I suppose, in the same sense as when one laughs at a car wreck. We witness a horrifying sight and chuckle nervously, this guttural emanation being no more than acknowledgment of the fact that we could be in that same place. When you have an airplane pilot screaming over an intercom "We're falling out of the sky! We're going down! We're a silver gleaming death machine!" the intentional absurdity of it is the blackest of comedies. This novel is nothing short of a treatise on the modern American landscape: a wasteland of information where the vapid and corrupted human experience is reflected back in full color, the human mind forever hinging on the precipice of death.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Interesting commentary about American society in the 1980's. Definitely had its funny points, but this was one of those rare cases where the audio version detracted from the book. Michael Prichard's deadpan narration made this a tough one to recommend.

[bontley · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

More than three, but less than four stars. Easy-to-read post-modernism for once, thus more satisfying for me. Still, a little too philosophical for my tastes.

[reginar_447079 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my first novel by Don Delillo and my first modern satire. It took me some time to adjust to the writing style and to what the author was trying to accomplish with White Noise. But once I entered the pace and got what the author was trying to do, I loved it. It is surprisingly funny -- laugh out loud funny and made me think about topics such as dying and fear.

White Noise begins as an examination of a "modern" family. The members' relationship with each other, technology and their fear of death and aging. White Noise was written in the mid-1980s, but it still has resonance. The characters philosophize and make interesting observations but at a certain point in the novel the town that is the setting of the book faces an environmental disaster that could be deadly for all of its inhabitants. White Noise follows the family, observes their reactions and ultimately makes a comment on how we live our life.

American society has a deep fear of death and aging. We seem to imbue the elderly and those that age with some blame for getting old. But when faced with dangers to ourselves, we often adopt apathy and fail to react. Perhaps because it seems hopeless or we feel helpless or it is bigger than us. An example I think of is BPA, I know it is a danger, I know it is out there but I have stopped trying to figure out all the ways it may harm me and my family because it is exhausting to keep on top of it and this quote captures so well my personal exhaustion on trying to protect/detect all the ways chemicals could affect my family:

"The smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire. WE finished our lunch in silence."

and,

"They want us to evacuate," he said. Babette said, "Did you get the impression they were only making a suggestion or was it a little more mandatory, do you think?" "It was a fire captain's car with a loudspeaker and it was going pretty fast."

White Noise has a brilliant side critique of academic life and its perhaps irrelevance with respect to daily life of human beings. The main character in a quest to establish himself as unique has created a "Hitler Studies" department at the college where he teaches. Yet he cannot speak or read German. His colleague is hoping to create similar staying power by creating an Elvis Presley Studies and has been invited to teach a course on the cinematography of car crashes.

What do our relationships mean with other people? Are we involved with them because we love them? Or because they do something for us? The main character of White Noise is ridiculously self-involved, after all it is a satire. When his wife faces an emotional, marital and physical dilemma the main character is focused on how she is no longer satisfying what he needs her to satisfy -- he will say I need Babette (his wife) to be full of life, to be happy, you are no longer the Babette I married. "I depend on you to be the healthy outgoing former Babette. I need this as badly as you do, if not more." Similarly, both his wife and himself are focused on how their youngest son makes them feel, brings them joy yet he is stunted emotionally and intellectually. They refuse to recognize this because the point of their son's existence is not to be an individual.

The main focus of the book are the characters obsessive fear of dying. And the absurdity of trying to stop the slow descent. Babette, the main characters wife, bizarrely enough teaches a class on proper posture to elderly people at a local church. As if they have just forgotten how to stand properly. As if this class will allow them to suddenly stand straight up and no longer remind us of what we will all become.

"There's something I promised myself I wouldn't tell you." "Can it wait until morning?" she said. "I'm tentatively scheduled to die. It won't happen tomorrow or the next day. But it is in the works." I said.

How does a person accept dying? That is the core of White Noise. "How does a person say good-bye to himself. It's a juicy existential dilemma."

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

-about literary theory and how it is taught in the American college-about dealing with the idea and the certainty of death-about life in the late 20th century-about the consequences of modern technology-about families

[lady_lazarus · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In the beginning I thought the story had material to develop into a critique of consumerism - and somehow I maintained that hope for a long time before I realized the story was focussing only on the individuals and their problems. Unfortunately neither the way the story was told nor the characters were fascinating and I found the book utterly dull and forgettable. In the end I was thinking what a boring movie this must make and how come someone ever came up with the idea of making one out of this.

[markm2315 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book has layers. Reminds me of The Stranger at times. Very entertaining dialogue.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Chippy writing style

[bobbybslax · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The writing often speaks to thoughts and feelings I’ve had that seemed indescribable. It’s also often very funny in a droll sort of way. The book’s schtick tired on me in its final stretch, where it abandoned its increasingly significant plot points to return to the noise. Luckily, the book’s a pretty quick read, so my weariness was short-lasted.

[kropferama · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Don DeLillo book I have read after hearing much praise of his work from other writers that I admire. I have to admit, however, it was not accessible to me. Perhaps it was my fault but I did not find the plot and characters working together. The writing style, which I later read is postmodernist, seemed to be more like a jumble of thoughts and ideas. For example, DeLillo regularly interjected lists and phrases about a particular moment or description without verbs. These interjections did not flow with the rest of the work.

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The writing is evocative, but the story is rambling without much of a point. Given that I was in a similar stage of my life as the main character when the book was published, I can see some of the sarcasm of the time. But the story just seems very haphazard.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a novel this would be to discuss in a class. The academic satire, the consumerism, the need for/expectation of a drug to fix things, the airborne toxic event. News, TV, weather reports. It's all very funny but also so frustratingly true. And so much of this is still true, though somehow this book feels innocent (naive might be a better word). Maybe because Jack Gladney is so convinced the airborne toxic event won't affect his town/neighborhood/family because they are the kind of people that "aren't" affected by such things. (Also, California is for disasters.) I'm not sure there are still largely white upper-class Americans that think that way. I may be completely wrong though.

[sbluerock · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Tonight I had the worst beer I've ever tasted. I finished it because I bought it. I drank it quickly to be done with it. At least it gave me a buzz.

K.P.A. Unity Kombucha Pale Ale.

I'll finish this book slowly...

Done. Not a book I enjoyed at all. This is one of those "good" books I should have left on the shelf for a Lit major to enjoy.

[booklove2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Somehow I expected this book to be much more post-modern and confusing, from what I had heard of the book up until reading it. Sometimes if the details are just right, it's fine with me if the overall book is confusing. Sometimes the details are more important than the whole. I did not expect this to have a plot focused on a family with small children in a suburb in America. But whoa, this is one of my favorite book families. There is more plot here than I thought. It's funny, kooky, bizarro, all over the place, so yeah, the perfect book for mid-80s American suburbia. Very prescient. Every page had a bit of genius so I can't help but love it. I'm glad I finally read this.Book #121 I have read of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die